Ring Light or Ring Flash?

[uk2usa]

I am considering purchasing a ring light... mainly because I find it so hard to view a subject through the viewfinder with extension tubes. But I got to thinking... which is better a ring light or ring flash? And which is more versatile for other photography genres? Thoughts please. Thanks.

[LordV]

Not sure what camera equipment you have but things like the canon MR-14EX flash have modelling lights built in although I have heard the comment they don't stay on long enough. If you are after a macro flash then you need something where the power to the twin heads can be varied otherwise you end up with very flat lighting (the above one does have variable power). Not sure if any of the normal flash solutions are useful in other forms of photography though. You may be better off just thinking of some form of LED torch to provide some focusing light with the flash supplied by something else.

Brian V.

[Athena]

Originally Posted by LordV

Not sure if any of the normal flash solutions are useful in other forms of photography though.

I've seen these used in fashion photography... You get great looking skin and some slightly freaky catch lights.

[dougsmit]

Question for someone who has a MR-14EX:
Do you really get a 'ring' of light or are the flash tubes actually small bright spots at the side with a little fill from a diffuser around but really more like two spots than a ring? This is the case with the Sigma EM140DG ringflash. To make it worse, the modeling lights on the Sigma are placed at top and bottom so they do not show exactly the effect you will get from the flash tubes. The difference is small but you can see a difference in lighting if you rotate the ring on the lens placing the lights at top and bottom rather than left and right. A real ring should not do this.